by Steven Marc TrierFrom the age of 14, I had been studying the work and personal biographies of my favorite Film Directors, such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Ford Coppola. My youth had been spent writing screenplays and scripts, as I was endlessly obsessed with film and everything associated with it. When I was 15, I wrote and directed a 120-minute sci-fi adventure film called, “The Ultimate Force.” that won Best Film Submission in a contest sponsored by KFTY TV-50.
One particular afternoon at High School, between 4th and 5th period, I happened to be walking past the rear corridor that leads to the front of the school. I noticed a well-dressed Italian man, accompanied by a group of about eight other people heading into the main hallway of the school. He looked very familiar to me. He appeared to me to be the world-famous director, Francis Ford Coppola – one of my personal favorites.
As luck would have it, indeed there was parked the very Green Rolls Royce I knew was Mr. Coppola’s favorite. At that moment I said to myself, “fuck fifth-period man.”
My heart was skipping and the adrenaline coursed through my body and I ran as fast as I could up the stairs then down the front hallway waving my arms and screaming, “Mr. Coppola, Mr. Coppola!”
“Yes? What can I do for you?” Mr. Coppola quietly inquired, with a warm, yet reserved tone in his voice that told me I had interrupted his thoughts. I tried to catch my breath in order to respond.
“What are you doing here?” I begged of him. Without any hesitation, Mr. Coppola responded, “I’m going to make a film here, is that alright with you?”
Trying to appear cool and laid back as if terribly familiar with the film process, I carefully prodded, “Oh yeah, that’d be awesome, can I be involved?”
“Sure! Give me your name and number and we’ll figure something out,” Mr. Coppola said encouragingly. He picked up on my genuine excitement and graciously welcomed my desire to be a part of the movie project. I don’t even remember anything else that happened that day.
Earlier that Fall semester, I had been cast in the roles of both ‘Jesus” and ‘Pontius Pilate’ in Santa Rosa High School’s production of, “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Achieving this casting was the culmination of a conscious decision to demonstrate my talents in this, my Senior year, and the last opportunity to show my classmates what I was capable of.
I received a call one day just before the end of my Junior Year in Santa Rosa High School, from one of Francis Ford Coppola’s assistants, who conveyed his response to me expressing the desire to be involved in the production. “Mr. Coppola would like to know if you’d be interested to put together a group of fellow students who would assist you in filming a documentary on the “Making of Peggy Sue Got Married.”
I spent every day of that summer from 7 am to 10 pm or later, depending on the shooting schedule, on the secured set of “Peggy Sue”, and was given exclusive rights to film anything I wanted to, except whatever scene they were filming at the time. I had several friends help me, including my go-to Thompson Twins devotee, John Fox, Tim Kniffin, Dylan Wainwright, Elizabeth Rüfenacht and Debbie Hodgson-Haynes.
Joan Allen introduced me to many of the cast and crew, and we started to sit together during lunches or dinners with the principal cast and crew members at Mr. Coppola’s personal table. The food was incredible. I could basically order anything I could imagine to eat. Mr. Coppola had an impressive spread each meal, from Swordfish to Steak and incredible pasta dishes and wines. Joan and I talked about everything it seemed like, and I was touched by her genuine kindness.
As the days wore on, I found myself scurrying about eagerly trying to capture Kathleen Turner in costume on the set. I was seeking that perfect shot and angle that would reflect the eminence that her presence commanded on the set. It would e a critical part of my documentary.
Eventually, however, I began to realize I had started to piss her off. One day, Joan Allen took me aside and said, “You know you’re starting to piss off Kathleen. I don’t think she knows who you are or what you’re doing here with that camera.”
I knew she had it out for me since the one day she threw me a heart-stopping glare as I was trying to sneak in a shot of her at the High School Reunion scene. I would be made to answer for my sins, but I couldn’t imagine a more perfect woman to discipline me. I mean, this was the world’s “Jewel of The Nile” and “Prizzi’s Honor” and what with the “Body Heat” already.
Gripped by the reality of meeting Kathleen Turner, I was in a state of abject delight. There I was, just a 16-year-old boy about to be ripped to shreds by the woman who destroyed Michael Douglas in “War of The Roses”. I braced myself for the stormy tempest of her anger.
As I came into Kathleen’s view, she blurted out, “You! Who the fuck are you and why do you keep following me with that damned camera?”
My mouth wide open but unable to utter even the faintest verbal response, I froze and Joan sensed my inability to do anything but stand there. She saved the moment by telling Kathleen how I had come to be making a film documentary of the making of “Peggy Sue”, commissioned directly by Francis Ford Coppola.
She let out a breath and said, “So why do I always see you lurking around and running away when I look at you?”
“Cuz I’m a scared little shithead in High School and well, you’re you,” I said.
“Fair enough. But you owe me. You’re gonna have to be here every day and bring me my breakfast,” she demanded.
“Uh, yeah, of course, but how will I know what you want for breakfast every day?” I asked.
“They know what I want at the catering truck, just check in with them every day, and someone will tell me you’re coming to my trailer. And you better be there on time and every day, got it? Then I’ll give you whatever you need for your little film.”
I was gobsmacked. How did I get to be lucky enough to be punished by the opportunity to worship and serve at Kathleen Turner’s feet – every day at 7 am? I knew this was gonna be a kickass summer. I won’t reveal details about what she had for breakfast, but suffice it to say, I was hooked.
As the shooting schedule progressed, I continued to have enjoyable moments talking with Kathleen and Joan. I met Jordan Cronenweth and developed a crush on his son who was working with him on the project. I eventually confided in Kathleen and told her about my crush. She was always telling me about her plans for the night after filming when her husband was flying in to spend the weekend with her. She didn’t hold anything back, coloring every comment with expletives and boundless energy in her voice.
She thought about it and in my own head I was going through the various filmography she had amassed to date. She looked at me and said, “My favorite would have to be “Prizzi’s Honor”. Working with Jack Nicholson was one of the most amazing experiences of my career so far, so I’d have to say “Prizzi’s Honor. Okay beat it I’ve got a scene to do.”
Fortunately, I have ADHD and was a mess in High School and, like every other Hollywood hopeful, I had an agent to represent me and find work for me as an actor.
So, I was called up one day by my agent who was trying to track me down (not an easy thing to do in these pre-cellphone days), so she could get me on the set to replace an extra who was out sick. I supposedly looked just like the guy, so she told me to be on the set at a certain time and just follow their instructions. The scene was English Class, and I really had no idea what was going to occur.
Now, if you’ve ever done extra work, you will know that every extra loves to brag up a storm about all of the many fantastic things they’ve done, blah, blah, blah.
So, I had already been through costume and makeup and all of us extras were sitting around the classroom of my high school, pretending to be high school kids. I didn’t say a word to any of them about what I was doing there or that I was actually more involved in the film than they could possibly realize. But, I decided to keep to myself.
That was until she saw me in the chair behind her assigned chair to film the English scene in “Peggy Sue”.
She screamed out in excitement, “Oh my god, Steven? What the hell are you doing here? How are ya? Oh my god, I had no idea you were going to be here? How the hell? Goddamn, we’re gonna have some fun. Thank god too, cause I thought I was gonna have to do this scene alone with nobody I knew and then there you are you little shit. I love it!”
I took a moment to look at some of the faces of the other extras in the room, now that Kathleen had basically announced we were old time friends and got along famously.
Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
It’s the eve of Peggy Sue (Turner)’s 25-year school reunion and she’s somewhat dreading it, having recently separated from her unfaithful husband, and high school sweetheart, Charlie (Nic Cage). Running into her old school friends gets her reminiscing about what she’d have done differently if only she got another chance, which she then immediately does after falling over and waking up in 1960.
Peggy Sue Got Married, the 3rd and final collaboration between Cage and his uncle Francis Ford Coppola, bears some striking superficial similarities to the previous year’s Back To The Future, although here the time traveler is returning to her own past rather than that of her parents. Class geek Richard becomes a pseudo-Doc Brown, convinced of Peggy’s story after she tells him of his future as a great inventor. Both films climax with their leads attempting to return to their own times via deeply unlikely procedures in the middle of a thunderstorm.
But thematically they’re very different — where Back To The Future is about the realization that your parents probably weren’t always so different to you, this is about dealing with your own past, regrets and missed opportunities. Peggy Sue desperately wants to get back to her adult life — but is also hugely tempted by the opportunity to start over again and do it differently this time. Also to do it with the school’s would-be beat poet in the woods.
Cage’s role as written is fairly straightforward stuff — in 1960 a carefree romantic with dreams of being a rock ‘n’ roll star, by 1985 given a heavy dash of disillusionment and midlife crisis. Cage’s role as acting? Well…
For reasons best known to Nicolas Cage, he decided he was going to base the character on a squeakily voiced animated horse called Pokey from a sort of shit American prefiguring of Morph called The Gumby Show. Complete with ludicrously huge false teeth. Which is all rather enjoyable on its own merits — the carefree musician played with bizarre goofball energy — to draw another Back To The Future analogy, Cage is playing both Marty and George McFly simultaneously, as one character. (George McFly was played by Crispin Glover, previously encountered in The Best Of Times and, briefly, Racing With The Moon.)
But here’s the problem: Cage’s ridiculous performance is almost totally incompatible with the rest of the film. By all accounts, Kathleen Turner was furious about the whole business (that the director could be taken to be allowing his idiot boy nephew to get away with it can’t have helped) — and this is visible in their almost catastrophic lack of chemistry. Fine when she’s reacting to the man who has (or is going to) leave her for a younger woman, pretty hopeless when we’re supposed to believe she’s fallen in love all over again.
It’s a shame, as Peggy Sue Got Married is otherwise not half bad — Turner is charming, Coppola’s nostalgia for the era is palpable, and the script’s refreshingly unpredictable, with a bittersweet (if not entirely unhopeful) ending.
Somewhat improbably, a musical adaptation of Peggy Sue Gets Married opened in London’s West End for a few weeks in 2001, before closing a few weeks later after 9–11 made people stop wanting to see musicals. Never forget.
But will I never forget the day I watched Peggy Sue Got Married because it was the day I won the lottery?
THE NUMBERS:
3 — Everyone’s constantly saying “Why I oughta!” and laughing. This is something one of The Three Stooges says, apparently.
5 — Peggy Sue’s mum wears Chanel No. 5 — Peggy Sue finds the smell nostalgic which is a bit of clever irony because she is smelling it in the past. Peggy Sue’s daughter, meanwhile, is played by Helen Hunt, also the co-star of some of the implausibly terrible Trancers films, which are also about time-travel and make Police Academy seem like an artistically important franchise.
6 — When Peggy tells Richard the nerd that man will land on the moon in 1969 he claims this is 6 years ahead of schedule. For space reasons, I imagine.
10 — Michael the school poet says he’ll be gone 10 minutes after graduation. He’s planning to go to Utah and wants Peggy Sue to come with him and help his other girlfriend look after his chickens while he writes poetry. Amazingly she turns down this offer.
25 — The films opens at Peggy Sue’s 25th school reunion. One of Peggy Sue’s school friends is played by the lady what kisses Captain Kirk in Star Trek IV, which is also about time travel.
55 — The Gumby Show, which featured Cage’s inspiration Pokey the horse, was first shown in 1955.
THE RESULT:
0 matches on the Peggy Sue Got a Married ticket, 1 match on the Lucky Dip I won last time. Damn you, Peggy Sue.